1. An exclusive interview with singer May Nasr and the US premiere of her new song 'Ouhibbouka" (lyrics by Syrian writer Ghada Al Samman)2. Writer Arin Mango who reads excerpts from her article "What's Islam Got to Do with It?' which was just published in Avicenna - The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs (Vol 3 No. 1 Winter 2013)3. A conversation with Nisrin Elamin (Doctoral student at Stanford) who broaches issues related to Sudanese culture while showcasing vibrant songs by Alsarah and Rasha.4. An interview with Zoe Woolford, student of Arabic at Stanford, who discusses the challenges and benefits of learning Arabic.

5. Selected songs by some of the Arab world's most talented female vocalists including Oumeima el Khalil, Yasmine Hamdan, and Fairuz.

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Yassir Chadly has made the USA his home since 1977 and has been performing and recording Moroccan music here since that time.He is a gifted musician of many traditional Moroccan instruments including the oud, gimbri, karkabas, darbuka, fretless banjo, tarija and bendeer and is one of the first Moroccan artists to introduce his native music to an American audience.

His innovative style and distinctive personality has led him to collaborate with many American Jazz artists including Pharoah Sanders, Steve Coleman and Randy Weston. He has also recorded and performed with Cuban artist Omar Sosa, digeridoo master Stephen Kent, bluegrass musician and Buddhist activist, Alan Senuake, Hamza Lila, The Mo’Rockin’ Project and Funky Blues musician Taj Mahal . Recently he has composed and performed music with the bay area Flamenco artist Kerensa DeMars and Flamenco gypsy singer Kina Mendez.

His first solo CD, AJEEB! was released in 2005 and is available on iTunes.

He has composed and performed Moroccan music for Alonzo King and Lines Ballet Company of San Francisco, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, The North Carolina Dance Theatre ,The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show and in 2006 was a featured performer with Philip Glass and his ensemble at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco for the West Coast premiere of The Qatsi Trilogy.

His jazz/Moroccan fusion CD entitled “SAHABA” recorded with The Mo’Rockin Project is available on their website at www.morockinproject.com

In addition to his musical talents he has also performed as a FOLKLORIC STORYTELLER bringing together Western and Sufi traditions in an innovative style.

He currently resides in Northern California with his wife filmmaker and ceramicist Khadijah Chadly and their three sons .

Yassir will be in concert along with other musicians at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley, California for 'A Night of Moroccan Gnawa, Sufi & Trance Music' on Saturday May 25 at 8pm.

This year, The Dum Tak Alternative Arabic Music Festival, which takes place in Amman, Jordan, will feature 15 an eclectic mix of bands from around the region who will come together and perform in the first-of-its-kind concert in Amman for what promises to be an exciting week.

The 'Tradition and Modernity: Globalization of Hip Hop Spotlight Omar Offendum and DAM' event took place at Stanford University on April 6, 2013 and was moderated by Dr. Ramzi Salti, Arabic Lecturer at Stanford and radio talk show host of KZSU's "Arabology." See video segments from this event below.

This event was recorded in its entirety (see video segments below) and included live interviews with artists Omar Offendum and members of DAM (Tamer Nafar, Suhell Nafar, Mahmood Jrere), plus concert by both Offendum and DAM, ft. DJ Emancipacion.

Dr. Ramzi Salti, Lecturer at Stanford University and Radio Host of 'Arabology' on KZSU 90.1 FM, began a weeklong series of talks titled "Ya'ani: Week of Music, Culture, and Languages of the Middle East" at Stanford on May 13, 2013 with a lecture titled '"Breaking with Tradition: An Examination of Alternative Arabic Music and Video Clips." The talk attempted to briefly showcase groundbreaking musicians and artists in Arabic music from the 1960's to the present, including (but not limited to) music that has fueled the Arab Spring.

Here are some segments from the talk/dinner which took place at the Bechtel International Center on the Stanford University campus on May 13, 2013 from 6-7:30 pm.

Dr. Ramzi Salti will be giving a talk/dinner titled "Breaking with Tradition: An Examination of Alternative Arabic Music and Video Clips" on May 13, 2013 from 6-7:30pm at the Bechtel International Center at Stanford University. This event is part of the 'Ya'ani: Week of Music, Culture, and Languages of the Middle East' which brings you classroom-style conversations with a variety of Stanford faculty over lunch and dinner (see full program below).

Everyone is welcome to attend but Stanford students and affiliates should RSVP to jturan@stanford.edu

May 9 'Arabology' Podcast available at https://soundcloud.com/arabology/arabology-s5-episode-5
* First part Features Arabic songs with commentary in English by Ramzi Salti.
* Second part showcases Iranian group Eendo (whose music is sampled throughout) incl interview with Ardalan Payvar + commentary by Stanford Lecturer Shervin Emami.

The Invisible Hands is the English translation of the band's original Egyptian Arabic name: El Ayadi El khafeyya الايادي الخفية.

The group was founded by frontman, guitarist, and keyboardist Alvarius B. (aka Alan Bishop, formerly of the Sun City Girls), the only American member. The balance of the lineup — Cherif El Masri on guitars, bass, and keyboards and vocalist Aya Hemeda (both former members of popular Egyptian group Eskenderella), drummer Magued Nagati, and Mohammed Medhad on violin and viola — all hail from Cairo, Egypt. The band recorded its self-titled debut album twice, once in English, once in Arabic. The set was released by Abduction in March of 2013. (Source: iTunes)

This sound sample includes short excerpts from each of the Arabic songs on the Deluxe double CD:

Coming together for the first time, this group of internationally acclaimed musicians will entrance the audience with the sounds of North Africa on traditional instruments including Sintir, Ney, Guimbri, Oud, Darbukkah and Bendir. Members of this collaboration include the founder of The Qadim Ensemble, El Hameedeen, and Zuwwar Ennabi Gnawa Ensemble. They have received national recognition on NPR’s All Things Considered, NPR’s Living on Earth, and top sales on Billboard Music charts. This group of Bay Area treasures coming together will be a fantastic evening of music not to be missed!

Omar Offendum is a Syrian-American Hip-Hop artist – born in Saudi Arabia, raised in Washington DC and living in Los Angeles.

Sohail Daulatzai is an Associate Professor of both Film and Media Studies and African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

In the 21st century, we all improvise identity and race. In this so-called “post-identity” era, improvisation is a metaphor for both how we construct our selves and the mode through which we create our selves. Throughout this 10-week course, we will explore how artists improvise identity through jazz music, modern dance, drag performance, contemporary art, race comedy, food, hip-hop theory, and freestyl

On Monday May 6, 2013, the Sohaib & Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of History, Graduate Student Council, Arab Studies Table, Stanford Language Center, and Stanford Humanities Center presented an Arabic Conversation Session with Sonallah Ibrahim. The session was conducted in Arabic and open only to Stanford Students.

Later that day, Mr. Ibrahim also gave a public talk in conversation with Professor Alexander Key (Stanford University) and Prof. Noha Radwan from University of California, Davis)at the Stanford Humanities Center--an event that was open to the public ( more information) .

Sonallah Ibrahim is “one of Egypt's most formally interesting and politically uncompromising writers ” and an Arab intellectual who has lived in Egypt throughout the reality of the last several decades. His most recently translated book, That Smell , “was a breathtakingly subversive answer to the problem of the omnipresence of the state in daily life and the inability of Arabic literature to express and capture that reality. It met with immediate censorship” (Yasmine El Rashidi , NYRB). “Ibrahim’s exhiliratingly bleak novel gives English-speaking readers a new classic of mid-century existentialism and, at the same time, a window onto an Egypt too few of us have glimpsed in literature or elsewhere” (Benjamin Kunkel).

Bassem Youssef, aka 'Egypt's Jon Stewart' recently sparked more controversy in Egypt after hosting Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila whose music has redefined alternative Arabic music and whose poignant video clips do not shy away from tackling various social and political issues that are so often ignored or dismissed in mainstream Arabic songs.

Youssef, who has since been accused of insulting religion by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, hosted مشروع ليلى Mashrou' Leila during the season finale of his TV show albernameg. Mashrou' Leila is a seven-piece alternative rock band from Beirut which has won countless fans throughout the Middle East since forming in 2008. Its frank treatment of taboo subjects such as sexuality and religion has drawn criticism and applause due (among other things) to the fact that the band's lead singer Hamed Sinno is openly gay (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/bassem-youssef-mashrou-leila-_n_3154736.html)

Of his experience with Mashrou Leila, Youssef stated, "I heard their songs and I didn't ask about his orientation ... Did we discuss [his] being openly gay on the show? We didn't." He then added that "They will just try to dig up anything to...alienate you in front of the people."